Dream Workshops and Healing

Montague Ullman, M.D.

The use of dream work has been pivotal and important for Western
psychology for many years. In this paper, Montague Ullman, a classically
trained psychoanalyst and recognized pioneer in dream research and
parapsychology, bridges the classical and the transpersonal. Although he uses a
Western psychological approach, Ullman is philosophically very close to the
mystical traditions in which unity consciousness is the goal.

In reviewing
dream research to date. Ullman sees Freud's contribution as "the
dynamic-concept of the dream," while to Jung "'we owe a recognition
of the growth-enhancing potential of the dream and its self-confronting nature
" How do we reach this stage of confrontation and growth? The author sees
this process activated by daily occurrences whose "novel aspects . . . can
potentially upset an existing emotional status quo." This upset needs to
be resolved in some way, restructured. "Restructuring emotional attitudes
toward others and oneself, " Ullman maintains, "is important from the
transpersonal point of view." Feelings, he asserts, are at the foundation
of all dream metaphors and of every human connection.

While human connections are built on feelings, we most often suppress
them in waking life; the push is towards individuality. It is only in our
dreams that we allow true feelings to surface and thus heal the broken or
tenuous connections between ourselves and others.

The dream workshops Ullman describes work on the assumption that, while
the dreamer is the ultimate authority and expert on his or her own dreams, a
group can "relate to that truth more readily than the dreamer. "
Therefore attention is given more to the appreciation of the participants'
dreams than to their interpretation - appreciation of the move on the part of
the dreamer and the group towards unity and connectedness. Together, they reach
back to the original transpersonal message of the dream. Doing this is "to
come closer to others " - and this, says the author, is healing

The transpersonal
features of dreams have, unfortunately, been long overshadowed by Freud's
discoveries about dreaming. Today, we must view classical psychoanalytic
approaches to the subject from a historical perspective if we hope to separate
the enduring contributions of early investigators from the metapsychology in
which they were embedded. Our dream images reflect the state of our connections
with significant others and the emotional tone of those relationships they are
shaped by the interplay between waking experience and this emotional field.

It is possible to
observe this interplay and highlight the transpersonal features in a group
setting.

THE LIMITS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE

A certain smugness has
crept into our approach to dreams, which can be accounted for, in part, by our
legacy from Freud. His ground-breaking, comprehensive formulations have had
such enormous impact that we cannot easily separate what we know empirically
from the metapsychological structure he evolved to explain the meaning and
dynamics of dreams. Freud's thought, shaped by his clinical experience, focused
exclusively on the dreamer's struggle with unresolved residues of the past. He
saw the tension in dreams as conflict and resolution, the conflict originating
in the ego's refusal to accept infantile wishes derived from primitive drives.

Carl Jung established
a much broader base for his speculations about dreams. He saw dreaming as a
natural and universal dimension of human existence. In his view dreams have an
integrative function, calling attention to aspects of the personality not duly
recognized in the waking state. For Jung, the tension stemmed from polarities
within the personality, polarities that had to be brought into complementary
relationship before the individual was free to recognize and work with all
aspects of his personality. Researching what we would now call the
transpersonal nature of dreaming, Jung postulated a collective unconscious that
is part of the genetic equipment and makes its presence felt through the
appearance of archetypal symbols in dreams from time to time.

To Freud we owe the
dynamic concept of the dream. Leaving aside his metapsychological schema, we
can see that he provided an explanation of how information with a bearing on
past and present tensions came into a dream. He recognized that a recent event
or day residue becomes the organizing focus for the dream. Although insignificant
by itself, this event assumes significance because of its connection to as
unresolved issue from the past. The feelings associated with it seem to echo
through our past, mobilizing bits and pieces of earlier life experience related
to the problem. In the course of dreaming, we bring together the relevant data,
past and present, and the resources at our disposal, both healthy and
defensive, then we try to come to some resolution.

To Jung we owe
recognition of the growth-enhancing potential of the dream and its
self-confronting nature. This confronting power moves us to higher levels of
personality integration by focusing not only on conflict but also on our
unrealized potential. Jung does not visualize two sides of our personality
warring against each other, he emphasizes the need to recognize neglected,
ignored, or undeveloped aspects of ourselves.

A dreamer is concerned
at some times with specific, unresolved problems from the past and at other
times with the impact of new experiences and the forward thrust of emotional
growth. In either instance, the kind of waking experience that sets up enough
tension to preempt our dreams can be said to have the quality of intrusive
novelty. Such experiences are novel to the extent that they hint at something
unknown and unfamiliar. The nature of the novelty determines the focus of the
dream. The waking event intrudes into our dream life because it makes a
connection with vulnerable areas from our past. The dreaming phase of the sleep
cycle is then used to explore the significance of this novel experience as
measured against the backdrop of earlier experiences and our available coping
resources.

This is, in brief,
where a personal view of dreams has taken us. To shift to a transpersonal
view calls for not only a closer examination of what we mean by novelty but
also a reconsideration of other phenomenological features of dreaming. It may
also require us to adopt a radically different perspective on the significance
and potential of our dream life.

FEELINGS AND DREAMS

The metaphorical
representation of feelings as visual images is central to the dream process.
Feelings function as connective tissue linking people and providing a matrix or
medium in which their transactions can occur. When things are going well, this
matrix, like the surface of the sea, is experienced in its quiet, buoyant, and
supportive aspects. When there is trouble, turbulence develops in the matrix,
and angry, troubled feelings result.

The suggestion that
novelty is the main link between waking experience and dreaming stresses the
vigilance function of dream consciousness; the novel aspects of day-time
encounters can potentially upset an existing emotional status quo. Any such
possibility commands the dreamer's attention and makes it necessary to assess
and resolve the situation.

Novelty is linked to
issues of personal growth in two important ways. First, a truly novel
experience may confront us and we dream about it. We are in a new situation
that we cannot ignore. The feeling of unfamiliarity evokes some tension. A
variety of other feelings such as interest, challenge, and foreboding, may
occur. Positive feelings occur in situations involving "approach"
behavior - exposure to new experiences in art, loving, or learning - whereas
more troublesome feelings are aroused when flight-or-fight patterns result,
such as a soldier's first time in combat. The common factor is this: the
reality situation presents something truly new from which there is no exit. One
tries, through exploration of the past, to evolve some way of meeting the
challenge.

Second, novelty is not
inherent in the objective nature of the confronting situation; rather, there is
novelty in the way we perceive the situation subjectively. If the past
predisposes us to see a situation as threatening and manages to penetrate our
defenses against it, then the sense of novelty comes from the feeling of
unpreparedness for coping with it. Defensive operations have failed to protect
us against this intrusive novelty. For example, we are surprised to find that
what we considered judicious concern with money matters is experienced, by
others as selfishness. If this strikes us as a no-exit situation, our nighttime
job is then to explore the issue and gather the strength to face that bit of truth
about ourselves. If we fail in this, we try to repair our defenses.

We are not alone in
the world. Any effort to undo old attitudes or to grow into new ones involves
restructuring past and present emotional bonds. It is this restructuring that
preoccupies the dreamer. The intrusive, novel aspects of a recent experience
make the dreamer aware that certain shifts and changes have been set in motion.
Concerned with the possible implications, the dreamer mobilizes relevant
information from the past to help assess both situation and ability to cope
with it. If the tensions connected with this effort retrain below a certain
level, the dreaming phase proceeds to its natural termination. If, however, the
tension is more than can be contained during sleep, then dreaming is
interrupted and awakening occurs. In terms of vigilance theory, the dreamer has
recognized something new on his emotional horizon, explored its ramifications
and implications, and made a decision as to whether or not full arousal is
necessary.

Restructuring
emotional attitudes toward others and oneself is important from the
transpersonal point of view. Emotions can be understood only as transpersonal
events. Biological, psychological, and social theories about the nature of
emotions fail to take this into account.[1]
In this context, transpersonal meaning goes beyond the biological, the
psychological, the social, and even the cultural.

Stated more
positively, I view our emotional capacity as a unifying energy field concerned
with maintaining the integrity of our linkages to each other as members of a
single species. We feel true emotions - even "negative" emotions like
anger - when it becomes necessary to realize this unity in practice and to
strengthen or repair it when damaged. When movement occurs in an interpersonal
field, the accompanying true emotion facilitates the movement and at the same
time preserves the integrity of the interpersonal field. A pseudo-emotion,
however, purports to facilitate interpersonal movement but actually manipulates
or destroys the interpersonal field in order to control the movement Anger is a
healthy or true emotion; it defines what has to be changed without destroying
the interpersonal field within which the problem arises. Hostility is a
pseudo-emotion. The object is deflected from the goal of facilitating movement
and becomes focused on the wish to destroy that part of the interpersonal field
seen as giving rise to the problem. Other pairs of emotions and pseudo-emotions
are love and compliance, and assertiveness and aggression.

We are the mediators
of feelings experienced as a flow into our being and expressed as a flow out of
our being. True feelings link us to something larger than ourselves and carry
us deeper into the world. In our dreams we write the script and cast characters
that best express our concern about whatever appears to be impeding this
movement. We are also the spectators of and actors in the inner drama we have
created. This internal theater is similar in many ways to its external
counterpart. It is just as concerned with the vicissitudes of human emotions
and car carry us just as powerfully out of ourselves and into the realm of the
ineffable. The images in our dreams are rooted in feeling. When we are able to
grasp their metaphoric messages, feelings are released. Gestalt theorists
emphasize this in their concern with using the images to fill in emotional
"holes" left over from the past.

Is there any
justification - other than their experiential "feel" - for regarding
emotions in this way? I suggest two findings that lend some support to this
point of view. The occurrence and control of REM sleep appears to be mediated
by older and more primitive brain structures. From a phylogenetic viewpoint,
the close tie-in of states of cortical arousal with the REM period, the close
connection of the REM state to our feeling life, and the prominent role of
brain stem structures in the control of the REM cycle suggest the possibility
that these mechanisms arose in connection with the survival needs of the human
species. They may have provided a nocturnal physiological mechanism for
monitoring primitive man's connections with his fellow beings. As an
individual, he was far more vulnerable than as a member of a group. Feelings
provided the channel for expressing those interconnections. The REM state
afforded the opportunity for a nightly review of the state of these connections
in the wake of day-time experience.

Still another basis
for these speculations stems from parapsychological studies and, in particular,
recent experimental work on dream telepathy (Ullman, Krippner, with Vaughan,
1973). Having initiated and conducted such work over the past fifteen years, I
am convinced that the scanning process we deploy during the REM period can
extend beyond our own spatial boundaries to pick up relevant information
telepathically and to extend beyond our temporal boundaries to pick up relevant
information precognitively. Although random information appears occasionally,
paranormally apprehended information is usually more apt to occur when a
significant emotional bond exists between the individuals involved. In ways we
do not understand, we seem able to transcend the ordinary, limiting physical
realities of our existence and to do this in connection with events that may threaten
our emotional ties to others.

A TRANSPERSONAL VIEW

Having established the
fundamental role of feelings in relation to dreams, we can examine the way in
which the feeling images appearing in our dreams serve the purpose of
maintaining and repairing our connections with significant others. This
mechanism is not at all complicated. Our impact on others and their impact on
us register in a feeling way regardless of whether or not we perceive them
accurately or consciously. That they do register at some level accounts for the
way feelings surface in dreams. We are confronted with what has truly happened.
We are witness to the disparity between the truth and our efforts at
distortion. In short, we are confronted with a realm of honesty in ourselves.

It takes considerable
cultural conditioning to maintain the illusion of individuality and
separateness from one another. After all, if we truly experienced one another
as brothers belonging to the same species, it would be difficult to justify the
infinite variety of hurtful acts we commit against one another in our innocent
efforts to accept and maintain an individualistic orientation. We evolve
elaborate systems of self-deception to hide the fact of our unity. In
psychotherapy we try to help people come to terms with individual systems of
self-deception that limit self-realization. Nowhere do we consider the more
difficult task of coming to terms with the culturally reinforced systems of
self-deception that keep us on individual tracks and undermine our unity as
members of a single species.

Dreams monitor our
struggle to be truly human, to be truly committed to other people. When we are
awake, the main focus is separateness and individuality; when we are asleep,
there is a shift to the more natural state of our relatedness to others. If we
consider individuality as analogous to waves in the sea rather than as enclosed
structures separate from one another, then we might say that the waking state
limits our view to the crests of these waves. We mistake them for discrete
structures. The view from the dreaming state focuses on the troughs, the
connecting medium between the crests. This is the realm of the transpersonal,
and the degree of turbulence here is what most concerns the dreamer.

The dream confronts us
with our status as human beings. It does so by simply using the truth. The
problem is that the truth is often too hot to handle while awake. This, too, is
understandable. If dreams really are an effort to remove emotional blind spots,
it is difficult for the dreamer to deal with them on his own. After all, the
blind spots evolved in the first place through exposure to social influences.
It is therefore reasonable to expect that some kind of social process will be
needed to help remove them. The experiential dream group is one such social
process (Ullman & Zimmerman, 1979).

THE EXPERIENTIAL DREAM GROUP

Working with dreams
experientially in small groups has made me more aware of the transpersonal
dimension of dream work. It has also made me aware of the great need that
people have to communicate with others with the intimacy and honesty that dream
work requires. There are few appropriate social groupings that can respond
adequately to this need. The unfortunate result is that people are left to meet
these needs individually or, when they can afford to, in the more specialized
therapeutic arrangements. Such arrangements touch only tangentially, if at all,
the transpersonal quality of dream work. The focus is, understandably, on the
individual psychological level.

Two principles govern
experiential dream work. First, the dreamer remains in control of the process
in its entirety. Second, the group serves as a catalyst, helping and supporting
the dreamer's effort to relate to his dream. No one, including the leader, assumes
an authoritative stance. Theory is eschewed except for a few basic,
nontechnical concepts such as the day residue, the linkages of dream images to
recant and remote past, the use of a visual modality to engage in metaphorical
expression, and the tripartite structure of the dream in the form of setting,
development, and resolution. The dreamer and the dream are appreciated in their
uniqueness. Ideas about the dreamer's predicament are gradually generated from
the immediate data offered by the dreamer and the response generated by the
group.

This is how the
experiential process works:

A dreamer who feels
ready to present a dream to the group does so, limiting the account to the
manifest content only. The group is then helped to respond in two ways. It is
made clear that their responses are largely their own projections and are based
on what they feel and read into the dream as they heard it. They are encouraged
to describe any feelings experienced while listening to the dream as well as
any feelings they experience if they think of the dream as their own. When this
process is finished, they are ready for the next step, which is also presented
as a projective exercise.

The group turns its
attention to each of the images appearing in the dream, responding to them as
metaphorical rather than literal statements. Using only the data appearing in
the dream and their response to the dreamer as he or she tells the dream, the
group comes up with a variety of ideas relating to possible metaphorical
meanings of the images.

The final stage of the
process is a dialogue between the dreamer and the group. The dreamer responds
to the group's input, some of which may have struck home and some of which may
have seemed unrelated. The dreamer is helped to reflect on the events of the
previous day in order to define clearly the specific content that shaped the
dream when it occurred. The dreamer and the group work toward making concrete
connections between the dream images, the current context and the significant
points of contact of the dream with events in the dreamer's past. The group
neither pushes nor pries. They supply what they feel are appropriate. open
ended questions to which the dreamer responds with as much self-disclosure as
he feels is comfortable. The process generally continues until the dreamer
experiences a sense of closure.

THE THEORY OF THE EXPERIENTIAL DREAM
GROUP

More often than not, a
dream is remembered and disowned at the same time. It is introduced as silly,
strange, or confusing. The dreamer is aware that he has dreamed it but is
unable to feel his relation to it. The group functions as a midwife to the
dreamer by helping to deliver the dream into public view. Because of the
insights that are sparked by the group, the dreamer begins gradually to take
possession of his own dream. Once that happens the dreamer can go as far as he
likes in working through new understandings. Only the dreamer determines the
point at which he wishes to carry the process on privately. Midwives help in
the delivery, but they don't raise the child.

When a group shares a
person's dream, there is an unacknowledged understanding that something both
precious and fragile has been entrusted to them. In being privy to the realm of
another's humanity, we encounter our own. Trust and tenderness are generated.
There is a sense of tapping a common bond, a recognition of familiar terrain,
and a surprising ability to empathize with the dreamer. It becomes a healing
experience for the group as well as for the dreamer.

In our dreams we struggle
against fragmentation and move toward wholeness. Dreams are a naturally
available path toward emotional healing. That they require a social process for
the healing to take place should cause no surprise. Movement out of
fragmentation and past blocks can occur only when favorable social arrangements
are at hand. The relationship between the waking and the dreaming self is a
kind of "Catch 22": we can confront ourselves more honestly when
asleep; in the waking state, we might be able to benefit from this honesty, our
old expedient self takes over. Truth often has a hard time when expediency has
the upper hand. The healing power of the dream rests solidly on the truth it
embodies and the power of confrontation possessed by the images used to convey
that truth.

The other members of
the group can relate to that truth more ready than the dreamer. This begins to
happen as they pick up the feeling tones. They are then guided by these
feelings into exploring the range of possible metaphorical meanings suggested
by the images. This results in a number of hits and misses. The dialogue with
the dreamer is essential in order to sharpen, define, and personalize the
experience.

What happens is not
easy to put into words. Just as there is something ineffable about the dream,
there is something ineffable about the process by which the group helps
disclose the dream to the dreamer. The members of the group are not operating
from any particular theoretical base. They are trying to tune into the common
grounding that supports them as well as the dreamer. By moving into this matrix
they help the dreamer discover his connections with it. No matter how upsetting
a dream may be, there is some relief in making the issue visible. The relief is
not necessary based on the resolution of the problem but on recognizing it as
the first step toward a resolution. Issues and predicaments in dreams do not
disappear because we do not attend to them; movement begins with recognition of
their existence

The transpersonal
dimension of dreaming becomes more apparent as the healing properties of the
images are fully appreciated. Troublesome predicaments, tensions and challenges
arise during the day. They block, impede, or deflect the flow of energies and
prevent proper contact with energy systems beyond our own boundaries. Andras
Angyal mentions that this striving of all living systems to transcend their own
boundaries and to be part of something larger than themselves is the trend
toward homonomy (1941). This contrasts with another important trend, the trend
toward autonomy, where the concern is with maintaining the integrity of our
dreams. As the group listens to a dream, they respond to the echoes of
difficulties they may have experienced in trying to realize their own
homonymous needs. The focus shifts from the individual to the commonality of
human needs and the vicissitudes to which they are subject. Dream work moves us
into a transpersonal domain by drawing attention to the way we are living out
our membership in a single species. This special quality pulls the group into
the dreamer's life and brings out helpful group responses without engaging the
dreamer in any defensive struggle.

We do not have the
language to speak more concretely of this particular quality of dream life.
Terms like transpersonal and spiritual touch on two aspects of
it: the beyond-the-person component, and the inspirational and unifying feeling
tone to the experience. When we look at a dream from this transpersonal
perspective, we begin to see it as more than a reflection of an immediate and
particular predicament and to appreciate its more general function of
monitoring our ties to other human beings. This concern with connectedness
mobilizes the group's interest in and sensitivity to the dreamer's struggle.

The style and intent
of the dream group makes it quite different from most other groups, especially
encounter groups, in which each person is held accountable for whatever he
brings to the group. The encounter group has the right to make demands on the
individual in order to clarify and expose manipulative or exploitative trends.
The behavior of each participant is subject to group challenge. Individual
members are there to find out about their interpersonal strategies. The group
helps by confronting them and by defending itself against manipulative and
acting-out behavior.

In the experiential
dream group, the persons who present a dream to the group do not initially take
responsibility for its message. They arc sharing an unknown and potentially
vulnerable part of themselves. The group responds to this disclosure with
concern, consideration, and respect for the vulnerability of the dreamer.
Operating within the process, they try to help the dreamer come to a felt sense
of closure, using every means possible short of forcing the issue. The group
tries to help the dreamer see the issues he is raising with himself and guide
him toward a resolution at his own pace and by his own choice.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF EXPERIENTIAL
DREAM WORK TO PSYCHOTHERAPY

A work of art is
rooted in feelings, and it becomes part of the common heritage because of the
truth it embodies about humanity or nature. It defies interpretation but yields
to appreciation. Interpretation is limiting and restricting; it has the effect
of closing off other responses. Appreciation is unifying and open-ended and
sets off a widening circle of reverberating responses. In ordinary parlance we
speak of "interpreting" dreams. Certainly in the professional context
the therapist seeks to work out the interpretation.

I feel more
comfortable with the concept of appreciation rather than interpretation of
dreams. I think that dreams have more in common with art than with science.
Scientific pursuits result in the isolation and definition of facts. Dreams
originate in feelings. There is no way of capturing the quality and intensity
of feelings in any other medium. Hence, there is no way to set their limits by
interpretive closure. The images we produce in our dreams are only our best
approximations of the feelings they are trying to convey. The words we use to
say things about the images are, in turn, limited in what they can say about
the image. This is why it is important for the group to be sensitive to their
feeling responses to the images before they struggle cognitively for possible
meanings.

It is most important
to identify the real life context out of which the dream arose. This can
usually be defined with a certain specificity as can the related life events of
the past referred to in the dream. It is the felt meaning, or feeling tone
accompanying these connections, that reaches the dreamer. Its power and
intensity set off reverberations that spread through the dreamer's being. The
use of the term interpretation seems too closely linked to the more
limited cognitive aspect of the experience. The concept of appreciation
emphasizes the feeling of identification with the forces at work as dynamic,
open-ended aspects of being.

A number of features
of experiential dream work distinguish it from the therapeutic approach in the dyadic
situation:

The time factor. Work with dreams has a rhythm of its own. It
requires an available expanse of time. It cannot be hurried any more than the
appreciation of a painting or a symphony. In the group, the sole focus is on
the dream and the time available to pursue it is open-ended. In the therapeutic
situation, the available time is less (usually one hour as compared to two or
more hours for the dream group), and more issues vie for attention and help to
determine how that time is spent.

The diversity of
input. The metaphorical
meaning of most dream images is not immediately apparent. Some kind of
catalytic activity is needed to expose the dreamer to the range of possible
meanings his images convey until one or more of them touch off a responsive
cord. It is this kind of helping activity on which the group embarks.
Regardless of how sophisticated any one person may be about dream work, the
range and variety of input from a group are far richer than those of a single
individual. The group does not have the same need for dissemblance that the
dreamer has in the pursuit of the metaphors of the dream.

The absence of
authority. The entire process
takes place in an egalitarian atmosphere. The leader does not stand apart from
the group. He shares his own dreams and through them his own humanity. The
flattening of any hierarchical arrangements lessens the tension felt by the
presenting dreamer and minimizes any transferential effects. It also works
against any need for the dreamer to be defensive or resistant.

De-professionalizing
the process. The absence of
allegiance to any technical or theoretical system combined with the avoidance
of jargon of any kind conveys to the participants a sense of the normality of
the experience. The group develops a feeling of competence as they join in the
give and take of the process. The leader is seen as a guide rather than a
specialist whose knowledge and authority overshadows others in the group.

Control remains in
the hands of the dreamer. The
dreamer makes the decision to share a dream. The dreamer's felt response to the
group's input is paramount. The dreamer decides on how much self-disclosure he
feels comfortable with. He can stop the process at any point he wishes and
continue on his own. The control of the process thus remains in the dreamer's
hands from beginning to end. This provides considerable cushioning for the
dreamer and also has the effect of minimizing any resistances he may have.

Response to a
challenge. A dream set before
a group is a mystery to be solved. The listeners experience it as a challenge,
usually with a sense of excitement. There is a playful relationship to the
images even when the content may appear oppressive. Fun and joy are part of the
discovery of the subtlety, elegance, and appropriateness of the metaphorical
meanings of the images.

For all these reasons
there are many things that can be done with dreams in a group that cannot take
place as easy in private treatment. It is my experience that a certain
complementarity evolves when someone participates in both processes at the same
time. By performing the midwife function, the group brings the dream into
public view and helps the dreamer experience it as his own. The experience of
appreciating, owning, and working with the dream in the group paves the way for
the exploration of its therapeutic implications in private therapy. In the more
protected and intimate setting of the therapeutic situation, one can explore
some of the more personal references as well as the characterological and
behavioral implications. This dovetailing of effect is the way it has worked
out in practice, despite some of my initial concern about possible conflict,
competitiveness, and other manipulative misuse of the situation.

The experiential dream
group helps people connect with the ever-available, though underutilized,
healing potential of the images they create while asleep. That the dreamer is
unable to deal with the dream alone does not mean that he is not ready; rather,
if the dream is remembered at all, then we may assume that the dreamer is ready
at some level to deal with it. The dream group and its leader assume a
responsive, supportive, facilitating role, respecting the authority of the
dreamer. He is the only real expert about his dream.

We do not know how a
dream comes into being. Working backwards and weighing the transpersonal
qualities that emerge when a group focuses on dream material we might conclude
that the source of the dream image itself is transpersonal in nature. Shands
comments on transcendence in dreaming as he draws a comparison between dreaming
and meditation:

Variant states of consciousness occur in transcendent form in the highly
disciplined religious or meditative human being at one end of a scale of
planned systematic activity. Curiously enough, and in a manner which indicates
again how close apparent opposites may be when we understand the basically
circular nature of human experience, a very similar state of transcendent
consciousness occurs in dreaming. Dreaming tends to occur as a function of a
physiological state precisely the opposite of the disciplined state of the
meditator, a state extensively examined is recent years and termed the
"rapid eye movement state." The dreamer experiences a liberation from
"objective reality" just as the mediator does - with the difference
that where the meditative road to this kind of merging is the road of
discipline, the dreamer's road is the road of extensive and automatic neural
inhibition of activity in all those muscles which ordinarily mediate skilled
behavior in the alert waking human being. (1971, p. 107).

The dreamer moves in
stages from an initial point in the transpersonal field, which is experienced
as tension between himself and others, to a personal representation of this
tension and its background in the form of developing dream images. On arousal
there is a shift to the personal and often bewildering view of the dream from
the waking position.

When circumstances are
favorable, the cycle can be completed by moving on to an exploration in an
interpersonal setting, and finally, to an appreciation by the dreamer and his
helpers of the transpersonal nature of the experience they have shared. To come
closer to others is healing. This is the message our dreaming self conveys to
us nightly.

[1] Trigant Burrow is an exception to this
generalization as the following quote shows. Subjective feeling, indeterminate
and unqualified, is in the primary organism, the sum of experience, the compass
of life. Primarily the organism's subjective feeling is its all. And as with
the growing perception of outer objects life enlarges, this subjective mode is
unaltered still. Our primary objective experience merges into continuity with
inherent feeling. It is added to, included in the subjective life. So that in
its incipient rapport with the world of objectivity, life maintains still a
fluid, undifferentiated, confluent mode. For life is primarily affective. In
the affect consists men's common ground. In the subjective affect lies organic
bedrock. Here in the common inherency of native feeling is the primal menstruum
of our human consciousness. (1927)